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Tell me what you think of my site!

geekindisguise

geekindisguise

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 22, 2008
297
0
Oklahoma
I know all of HTML and most of Javascript and PHP.
But I am definitely a beginner with CSS.
So please tell me what you think of my site,
and what I could improve!

http://jakes.is-a-geek.com/

I want to have Web Design as my profession and at age 13, I think it would be good to work on it some more!

THANKS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
Not to be rude but, you asked. The colors hurt my eyes. I couldn't look at your site for more than a few minutes even if I wanted too.
 
I am not good at Designing

I know that my Designs are terrible
but I am working on it!
I don't have all of the EXPENSIVE programs to create stunning graphics
all I have is a Text Editor and Photoshop Elements 6

Have you seen the Example page?
I am working on the 2009 version of my site.
But it needs A LOT of work.
But I don't really know what to make it look better!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
geekindisguise said:
I know that my Designs are terrible
but I am working on it!
I don't have all of the EXPENSIVE programs to create stunning graphics
all I have is a Text Editor and Photoshop Elements 6

Have you seen the Example page?
I am working on the 2009 version of my site.
But it needs A LOT of work.
But I don't really know what to make it look better!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Click to expand...

You have photoshop...thats good enough

I use keynote and gimpshop for most of my stuff.
Yes keynote, the presentation program

I so ghetto.

Like the Drinker says tho, don't get all upset. people on these forums (besides me) aren'T going to tell you "thats nice honey" etc. They will be frank. Learn from it :)
 
geekindisguise said:
I know that my Designs are terrible
but I am working on it!
I don't have all of the EXPENSIVE programs to create stunning graphics
all I have is a Text Editor and Photoshop Elements 6

Have you seen the Example page?
I am working on the 2009 version of my site.
But it needs A LOT of work.
But I don't really know what to make it look better!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Click to expand...

You should not be discourage by criticism. You are young and still have a lot to learn. You should learn from feedback people give, you can not please all the people all the time. My advice, even if you don't have all the tools to make a great web design, make one that people enjoy looking at.
 
Keynote?

yoyo5280 said:
You have photoshop...thats good enough

I use keynote and gimpshop for most of my stuff.
Yes keynote, the presentation program

I so ghetto.

Like the Drinker says tho, don't get all upset. people on these forums (besides me) aren'T going to tell you "thats nice honey" etc. They will be frank. Learn from it :)
Click to expand...

How do you use Keynote?
Just wondering...
 
Not at the moment...I want to start one. I don't know squat about webcoding..but I made a simple mockup.

Its just a draft, and its not great looking.
 

Attachments

  • website design.jpg
    website design.jpg
    85.8 KB · Views: 175
Totally Agree!

yoyo5280 said:
Thankyou. I am a minimalist! :p

Problem is finding people to visit your site :p
Click to expand...

I added Ads to my site a week ago so that I could get some money to keep my Server running. But since I can't click on my OWN Ads, I am not getting any money! I have added my site (and the other sites I host for friends on my server) to Google's Search Engine, but I have to pretty much type in my URL to find it! I tried my name, but that came up with ALOT of stuff.

I really don't know anything better than WORD OF MOUTH (Like at school) to advertise my site and get more traffic!
I have also been posting more on here to try and get more visitors.
I think MacRumors was the best idea!
 
You need to learn some basic design skills. I am talking about communication design. I'm guessing you are in high school. Check out your tech courses at your school and see what is available. In Canada we have several courses centered around design. The most purposeful would be the grade 10-12 communication technology curriculum.

You will learn about eye flow, contrast, emphasis and communicating a message. You will come to understand why red is not the correct color for background and why the multiple font changes are ineffective.

To learn good design, do a search of the web for examples. As one poster put it, s/he uses keynote as their starting point. Why? Because the templates are harmonious from top down. Consistency is key.

If you have access to iWeb, check out their templates. Simple, consistent and they flow nicely. It's also done without a lot of fancy graphics.

If you want to see a nice web site, this is the best one I have come across recently. They sponsored our construction class and I needed to get some information from their web site for an invitation. I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the site: http://www.bjcarchitects.com/bjc.htm
The site is perfect for illustrating emphasis, eye flow and focus.
 
Hahaha... Funny!

mcavjame said:
You need to learn some basic design skills. I am talking about communication design. I'm guessing you are in high school. Check out your tech courses at your school and see what is available. In Canada we have several courses centered around design. The most purposeful would be the grade 10-12 communication technology curriculum.

You will learn about eye flow, contrast, emphasis and communicating a message. You will come to understand why red is not the correct color for background and why the multiple font changes are ineffective.

To learn good design, do a search of the web for examples. As one poster put it, s/he uses keynote as their starting point. Why? Because the templates are harmonious from top down. Consistency is key.

If you have access to iWeb, check out their templates. Simple, consistent and they flow nicely. It's also done without a lot of fancy graphics.

If you want to see a nice web site, this is the best one I have come across recently. They sponsored our construction class and I needed to get some information from their web site for an invitation. I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the site: http://www.bjcarchitects.com/bjc.htm
The site is perfect for illustrating emphasis, eye flow and focus.
Click to expand...

That is kind of funny because I used to want to be an Architect!
Hmm... It is also Weird!

Also,
If you hadn't read the 1st Post it said that I am only 13!
If I was in High School I would be taking their Web Development Class.
Which is what I plan on doing!
 
mcavjame said:
You need to learn some basic design skills. I am talking about communication design. I'm guessing you are in high school. Check out your tech courses at your school and see what is available. In Canada we have several courses centered around design. The most purposeful would be the grade 10-12 communication technology curriculum.

You will learn about eye flow, contrast, emphasis and communicating a message. You will come to understand why red is not the correct color for background and why the multiple font changes are ineffective.

To learn good design, do a search of the web for examples. As one poster put it, s/he uses keynote as their starting point. Why? Because the templates are harmonious from top down. Consistency is key.

If you have access to iWeb, check out their templates. Simple, consistent and they flow nicely. It's also done without a lot of fancy graphics.

If you want to see a nice web site, this is the best one I have come across recently. They sponsored our construction class and I needed to get some information from their web site for an invitation. I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the site: http://www.bjcarchitects.com/bjc.htm
The site is perfect for illustrating emphasis, eye flow and focus.
Click to expand...

Good advice there, however I disagree with your choice of example there. For one big reason
TOO MUCH FLASH. Animations tend to turn me off.
 
yoyo5280 said:
Good advice there, however I disagree with your choice of example there. For one big reason
TOO MUCH FLASH. Animations tend to turn me off.
Click to expand...

Yes... flash can get tired after a while, but I love the simplicity of their logo and there was no mistaking what the site is all about.

Doing a quick search, I found a site that has two list: good and bad web design elements. At the bottom of each list is a "general design" list. You could use this check list to see if you are following basic design work. It's a starting point: http://www.ratz.com/features.html

There is also a site call webpagesthatsuck.com. It's premise is that you can learn good design by avoiding the mistakes of others. They have a nice collection of bad web sites.

The third link lists 9 principles of good web design. As you start going through these sites, you start to recognize some consistent recommendations. Some of it is bound to stick with you: http://psdtuts.com/designing-tutorials/9-essential-principles-for-good-web-design/

Hope this helps. I didn't mean to be so critical; sorry I did miss that you are 13. It takes courage to ask for criticism.. good on you!
 
Keep it up!

Sure your site is rough now, but asking for help and focusing on improving your skills is the right step. It is very impressive to see a 13 year old with a set goal in mind. Good luck!
 
geekindisguise said:
I know all of HTML and most of Javascript and PHP.
But I am definitely a beginner with CSS.
So please tell me what you think of my site,
and what I could improve!
Click to expand...

I don't mean to be rude, but I think claiming to know "all of HTML" and "most of Javascript and PHP" is a little arrogant. It would make much more sense to use CSS rather than Js for the mouseover effect on the baubles. I think what needs most work is the text, though; use a spell checker and proof-read it, don't capitalise the start of every word, and please don't end every sentence in an exclamation mark.

I've been interested in web design since I was a bit younger than you - you're doing fine! Practice and building on constructive criticism is a surefire way to improve :)
 
^^ The fact is you can never really 'know' all of X/HTML or Javascript. You may know the values, attributes, etc, but you constantly learn their application - either finding better ways of doing something or applying it in different combinations and methods than you previously used. All for the better.

To the OP: I caught a couple of UI things you may want to consider:

1. Never (NEVER) make your text links the same colour or treatment as the copy surrounding them - capitalizing them doesn't count either. The most basic thing is to use underlining since that's the 'default' setting that most users will recognize.

2. Define the areas of your site carefully ahead of time - before you even touch coding, make a sketch on paper of what content goes where: Google Adsense on the left side, Latest Events and/or News on the right side, etc. Give people a way to quickly assess the information on the page.

3. Give your site a name and identify that in the header. Have it be the home button. People always click on the header to go home.
 
Thanks!

Thanks! Everybody here has given me a lot of advice and I am sure it will help me with my future designs. Thanks Everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
 
New Design Launch!

Thanks to Omi for the idea for a new layout on my site.
I did launch the new Design last night for the new year
and I really like it!
It has a few problems which I will fix later, but overall
it looks nice.

I also removed the iFrames and made it without them.
iFrames aren't very Search Engine friendly and it is hard to show someone the exact page you want to show them when it is in an iFrame.


http://jakes.is-a-geek.com/
 
their is a lot of things wrong here
start learning CSS
and photoshop
two skills a web developers needs
i think that will help a lot
 
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